My Best Pie Crust (Flaky but not TOO Flaky)

There’s an obsession in the pie world with the “flakiest” pie crust and I have to admit I bought into the hype for many years, too. After a while, though, I realized I wasn’t enjoying how these super flaky pie crusts ate — they were a little tough/chewy and hard to cut with a fork, which made the pie-eating experience more cumbersome than it needed to be.

I started out with Stella Park’s fantastic all-butter pie crust recipe years ago and while it served me well, I’ve made so many chances since then that it’s no longer recognizable (except for the flour to water ratio).

To get a more tender texture, I blitz about 1/3 of the butter into the flour until it “disappears” — coating the flour in butter like this means that it’s much harder for gluten to develop and gives the crust a tenderness. This translates to a crust that’s a little crumbly and easy to cut with a fork.

The flakiness comes from incorporating large, thin pats of butter the more “traditional” way for flaky crust. Combining these two methods yields a crust with the best of both worlds.

The Perfect Flaky-but-not-too-Flaky Pie Crust

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Resting time: 2 hours
Servings: 1 double pie crust
I find that ultra flaky pie crusts can sometimes be a little too chewy/hard to cut, making them impractical for eating. I prefer a crust that has some flakes, but also some tenderness. In order to achieve this texture, you need to combine two different techniques for incorporating the butter into the flour — but don't worry it's not as hard as it sounds.
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Equipment

  • 1 food processor optional
  • 1 bench scraper optional

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces all purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp sugar
  • 3 tsp buttermilk powder*
  • 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher saltfor table salt use half as much
  • 8 ounces unsalted butter very cold
  • 3.25 ounces water ice cold

Instructions

  • Place flour, sugar, buttermilk powder, and salt in a food processor with approximately 1/3 of the butter, cut into chunks. Pulse until the butter “disappears” and the flour looks like wet sand. If you don't have a food processor you can use your fingers to "smush" the butter into the flour — work quickly so the butter doesn't heat up too much.
    8 ounces all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp sugar, 3 tsp buttermilk powder*, 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher saltfor table salt
  • Move the flour to a bowl. Use a bench scraper or knife to carefully “shave” the rest of the butter into thin pats and add to the flour bowl—don’t worry, the thickness of the pats doesn’t need to be perfect, aim for the thickness of 1-2 credit cards. Toss the flour over the butter to coat each piece.
    8 ounces unsalted butter
  • Add the water and begin folding together with a flexible bowl scraper or your hands. Use your hands to knead a couple times and bring everything together, being careful not to overwork or overheat the dough.
    3.25 ounces water
  • Roll dough out to a rough rectangle, about 1/2-1/4” thick—again, this doesn’t need to be precise, but err on the thicker side rather than rolling it out too thin, which could overwork the dough. Roll it up like a Jelly roll from the short side. Flatten the roll slightly and fold in half.
  • Split the dough in half, and either roll into two rounds to create the bottom and top pie crust OR wrap each half in plastic as-is and refrigerate until ready to use. In either case, refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.
  • Note: if using a tart pan, use egg white to stick edges together.

Notes

*While not strictly necessary, buttermilk powder adds a ton of flavor to the pie crust. I highly recommend not omitting it. Buttermilk powder can be found at many standard grocery stores or online.

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